[tor-relays] How to reduce tor CPU load on a single bridge?

[David Fifield]

On Mon, Dec 12, 2022 at 08:19:53PM +0000, Gary C. New via tor-relays wrote:
> I am having some issues or misunderstandings with implementing Snowflake Proxy
> within Tor. I assumed that implementing Snowflake Proxy within Tor would be
> similar to OBFS4Bridge in that Tor would initialize Snowflake Proxy as a
> managed Pluggable Transport listening on the assigned
> ServerTransportListenAddr. I can see Snowflake Proxy initiate outbound
> requests, but I don't see it listen on the specified ServerTransportListenAddr
> and Port.

The Snowflake proxy is not a pluggable transport. You just run it as a
normal command-line program. There is no torrc involved, and the proxy
does not interact with a tor process at all.

Unlike, say, obfs4, in Snowflake the bridges are centralized and the
proxies are decentralized. If you run a proxy you don't also run a
bridge.

If it helps the mental model: the standalone proxy program in Snowflake
does exactly the same thing as the browser extension proxy
(https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/anti-censorship/pluggable-transports/snowflake-webext).
Those browser proxies don't have an attached tor process; neither does
the command-line proxy.